This morning, I called my friend Shari Thurow, Marketing Director at
Grantastic Designs, Inc., about her opinions on Google's new Print function, an innovative idea that provides books within a user's search results.
Is Google Print Just a Blip? Shari sincerely hopes Google Print will succeed. "One of the things about Google is their affinity for indexing different kinds of documents. They were the first to do .pdf documents, so they can do a full index on a very large file like a book. The thing is, most authors don't write in keywords. They don't think to put the book title in keywords, or to put the book chapters in keywords. I have no idea what the algorithm would be for something like that."
Patience is a Virtue. Shari is quick to point out that Google is still learning in regards to their print function. "They're new at it, so give them time to fine tune it. I don't know if they'll be using meta data, because that's something that book people would have to do. [They'd] say, 'Here's this book. Here's the title. Here's the author. This is what the book's about...'"
Shari uses her own book as an example. "My book is about search engine optimization and search engine marketing. I would dare to use trademark names in the meta data because that's what the book's about. I'm not being deceitful. But I'd be worried about meta data if it's abused. I don't know if Google's going to use it or not, but I think they should."
Can They Beat the Competition? You have to admit, Google has huge competition, including the likes of
Amazon.com and
Barnes and Noble. Will they be able to compete with these already well-established sites?
"I don't think it's going to go away," Shari says. "Do they have the technology for it? Absolutely. Do I want them to succeed with it? Absolutely. I would love to see better search experience with books. I use Amazon all the time. I'm an Amazon affiliate, but what I like about Google is it's a simple interface and the ads aren't in your face. Unfortunately, with Amazon, they are. If Google can be just as accurate - or even more accurate - than Amazon, I think that's great and I think it will work."
Innovation in the making. While Shari can't reveal all the details about this new process, she did tell us a few tidbits. "Basically, publishers have to design their landing pages - but I can't talk about that," she laughs. "Publishers get to write their landing pages, but I don't know if Google is going to be using landing page data to determine their results. It's absolutely more up to the publishers than the authors at this point.
Getting Back to eCommerce. In case there's still any confusion as to how new this is, Shari adds, "Right now, it's so new that publishers are able to suggest what types of information should be available on a landing page. The thing is, if you did a search for books, what kinds of things do people search for? Subject. Author. Title. ISBN number. Price. This is no different than in an eCommerce book site, so there's got to be a summary of stuff like that. You'll probably see very different landing pages from different publishers and I think what Google will figure out is what provides the best search experience and what determines a good landing page, and they'll become more strict.
"They'll be able to monotize this no differently than they're doing now. Let's say you're doing a book search. I can see them putting contextual ads in the book."
"More Power to Them!" Shari is very enthusiastic in her hopes that Google will add a Books tab, like the News and Images tab, to their site. She says, "I believe this is where they'll be heading and more power to them! I absolutely think it's needed. The other thing, too, that I like about Google as opposed to Barnes and Noble and Amazon is that Google is an objective search party. That's why I'm all for Google..."
She adds, "I would trust Google Book Search more than Amazon because Google is objective and they won't have all those ads in there that already drive me insane. Am I going to stop using Amazon? No, because I like it."
Any Word on eBooks? It's exciting to watch something like this evolve. I asked if there's a chance that eBooks will be included in these searches, but Shari said there's no word -- yet.
"Just wait and see..." Only time will tell whether Google Print becomes a success or a failure, but Shari says, "Just wait and see. ... We'll see improvements, but right now, it's up in the air."
Google Innovation in the Making
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